– Note:
– Shinos is a small bush growing in the wild in the Mediterranean, very aromatic and it produces seeds like peppercorns, aromatic and a little chilli.
– These little peppercorns like seeds are being used by some people in Cyprus in their homemade sausages.
– Shinos seeds are a wild grown herb, called up in the Original Traditional Cypriot Recipe for making Kypriaka Loukanika (Cyprus Smoked Sausages) but are not essential to be used.

Method:

– Place the coriander seeds in a baking pan and roast them for a few minutes in the oven and crash them.
– Mix the minced meat with the salt and crashed coriander and place in a strainer and strain for about 10 hours or overnight.
– The following day place the minced meat mixture in a large enough container, (bowl, pot or pail) and pour enough wine to cover it.
– Stir daily and add 1 cup of fresh wine each day for 5 days.
– The fourth day of soaking the meat mixture in the wine, wash the intestines under plenty of running water, rub with lemon and place in a bowl and top with wine to soak.
– The next day remove 3 cups of wine from the minced meat mixture and add 3 cups of fresh wine.
– Add 3 tsp of crushed coriander, 1 1/2 tsp of black pepper, flakes of red hot pepper (Optional) and 6 tsp (Optional) of (Shinos).
– Cut the intestines at the length of approximately 1.5 m long.
– Place one end on a funnel with a large hole and start stuffing until you stuff it half way.
– Tie a knot on the filled site, place the funnel on the other end and pierce the intestine with a needle to drain the wine during stuffing.
– Stuff the other end of the intestine, pushing the stuffing so the intestine is well filled.
– Tie a knot on the filled side, find the center of the filled sausage and at approximately 6 inches press the filling, leaving just the intestine cross the two pieces and bring one end though the loop, repeating every 6 inches.
– When you have competed the process pierce with a needle to drain the wine.
– Fill in the rest of the intestines using the same process until all the filing is used.
– Smoke the sausages for 1 day over aromatic branches of Shinos.
– If the sausages are not going to be smoked, they can be dried hanging in the sun for about 15 days.
– After drying, place in airtight sealed bags and store in the refrigerator.
– In the old days in the Cyprus villages, before the refrigerators were introduced, people used to store the sausages in lard (melted pork fat) in special clay containers called “Koumnes”.
– Some people still use this method using the lard to fry the sausages.

Helen Pavlousays:

Christos Spyrousays:

Shinos is the cypriot word for the fruit of the Pistacia terebinthus, known commonly in English as terebinth and turpentine tree (GkCy. Shinia)..not mastic.
They are not juniper berries; the bush is closely related to the cashew.

To create authentic Cypriot Loukanika, it is an ESSENTIAL ingredient. The black ripened fruit are best.
For wine, my father uses dry red village wine….this single ingredient (after the quality of pork), is the most important ingredient.